but not anymore. >> reporter: vandike's documentary, titled "not anymore," a story of revolution, profiles two protagonists risking their lives to draw attention to the deadly conflict. one of the characters, nor, a producer, says everyday life for many syrians is a living nightmare. >> i'm not going to give up. even if i have to die. i'm going to do this. >> it's a shame, you know. nora is a young woman. she was 24 when i filmed her. she is going to spend her 20s in war. this war will likely go on for years. >> >> reporter: but with more than 60,000 civilians killed in the last two years, according to the united nations, many wonder if they'll live to see the end of it. >> they're shocked, disappointed. they thought after libya help would be coming to them. they don't understand. they feel abandoned and largely they're right. >> the film is set to debut in

february. nick valencia, cnn, atlanta. cnn "newsroom" continues at the top of the hour are don lemon. and right now, keep it here for sanjay gupta md. hello and thanks for watching. the new year is here. a new chance to do things right. you know, i watched the doctor make this case that sugar is basically toxic. i want to talk about that today. he brings some new advice on what to eat. also, deepak chopra is here with tips on how to did he destress and be happier. and how to keep a new year's resolution. here we go. ♪ we're going to get to all of that, but first, every year, about 1.7 million people in the united states suffer a traumatic brain injury. sports, from falls, car accidents. i see it every day in my line of

work. and in severe cases, i can tell you, there is no drug, there is no pill that offers any help. but i'm about to tell but two dramatic cases of crippling brain damage that may have been reversed. how? by simply using fish oil. his story begins almost three years ago, with a phone call. >> toughest call that any parents can get. >> it's about your son. there's been an accident. come quick. >> i told my younger brother to hold his hand until i get there. >> bobby's car had careened off a dark and winding road. paramedics assessed the wreckage and body. >> when i'm looking at the reports, they report a glasscow

coma score of 3. a brick or a piece of wood has a coma score of 3. it's dead. and somehow the paramedics miraculously managed to revive this kid. >> this was the scene. when his parents finally arrived to bobby's bedside. >> he realized that he could be going any time. >> there had been so much bleeding within the brain. his skull could not contain the swelling. every part of his brain was affected. but peter and marjon this rugged off the horror of the situation to fight. >> our motto during the whole time that he was in coma, you fight your way and you come back to us. >> little did they know that that fight would link them to the sole survivor of an infamous mining disaster. >> tonight, 13 coal miners

trapped nearly two miles inside a west virginia mine. >> a few years before bobby's car barrelled off that road, 13 miners huddled together after an explosion. as deadly carbon monoxide wrept in crept into the air space around them. 41 hours later -- >> the only confirmed survivor is randall l. mccloy jr. >> dr. julian bales was randy mccloy's neurosurgeon. >> he had methane poisoning. he was in liver failure, kidney failure, had a collapsed lung. >> mccloy's body somehow recovered. the question was, could his brain do the same? can you quantify the likelihood that someone like a randall mccloy would recover, that he would have a meaningful neurological recovery? >> we felt, and i think everything since then supports the fact that he was truly a long shot. >> but bales was concocting an unorthodox plan to try and save

randy mccloy's brain. high doses of omega 3 fatty acids. fish oil. >> so the concept was then trying to rebuild his brain with what it was made from when he was an embryo in his mother's womb. >> rebuild his brain. >> yes. we gave him a very high, unprecedented dose to make sure we saturated and got high levels in the brain. >> had that ever been done before, to your knowledge? >> no, it had not. >> bales was going out on a limb. but he had a hunch. in other studies, omega 3 seemed to restore balance in the brain, helping some patients with depression or suicidal thoughts. could an injured brain be similarly restored? and if so, how? >> if you have a brick wall and it gets damaged, wouldn't you want to use bricks to repair the wall and omega 3 fatty acids are literally the bricks of the cell wall in the brain. >> during a traumatic brain injury, the brain swells, and nerve cells stop communicating, and die.

omega 3 fatty acids, the theory goes, can rebuild damaged nerve cells, reduce inflammation, keep those brain cells from dying. the problem, few human studies had proven this theory. ten days after his accident, bobby was still in a coma. >> if he ever comes out of the coma, we don't know what kind of shape he's going to be in. and it was really hard to hear that, okay, he lived. he survived, and then now what? >> so they saved his life. but we don't have anything that helps from that point forward. >> and i would love to have you on the show. >> dr. michael lewis, a former army colonel and omega 3 researcher, believes fish oil could be the missing link. >> ultimately, we need to get it in the scientific literature by doing the good science and the studies to prove it. >> after bobby's accident, he got a desperate call from peter ghassimi, and after some explaining, asked him.

>> what do you think about the idea of using high-dose fish oil like julian bales used with randy mccloy? [ applause ] the carbon monoxide level was really high. and i have no explanation of how i escaped it. >> but mccloy, whose remarkable recovery is well-known, was just one case. and it remains unclear whether omega 3 was truly the key. the next hurdle for ghassimi, convincing bobby's doctors. >> it was a fight. they didn't believe, and they said fine, the west virginia miner was one case. i need 1,000 cases to be proven for me before i can give this to your son. >> he literally had to lay down in the middle of the floor and throw a tantrum until they started to put the -- put it down his child's feeding tube. >> the tantrum worked. in two weeks after starting his fish oil regimen, bobby

ghassimi, case study number two, began to emerge from his coma. >> woo! >> of about two months after that, he attended his high school graduation. >> they all stood up and were screaming and cheering my name. i took my graduation cap off and waved it around. >> the common denominators for ghassimi and mccloy, devastating brain injuries and then omega 3 fish oil. but did the omega 3 hasten their recovery? for now, we do not know. >> i absolutely believe that it made a huge difference in bobby's recovery. >> after treating bobby ghassimi and randall mccloy, the coal miner, dr. ran dals and lewis became paid consultants to fish oil companies. but since then they have seen other cases where this treatment has helped. it is fascinating stuff.

but it does need to be said, this is still very early. we're going to need large-scale clinical studies to see if these benefits can be reproduced. coming up, dr. robert lust i go and how to eat better and why calories are not created equal. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. i tried weight loss plans... but their shakes aren't always made for people with diabetes. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly to help minimize blood sugar spikes. and they have six grams of sugars. with fifteen grams of protein to help manage hunger... look who's getting smart about her weight. [ male announcer ] glucerna hunger smart. a smart way to help manage hunger and diabetes.

i think i speak for almost everybody. if it's in front of me, i eat it. i love cheesits. if you put a bowl in front of me, i would probably eat them all. >> that was one of my favorite interviews, mayor bloomberg of new york. not immune, apparently, to temptation. this time of year, a lot of us vow to eat right but we don't have a plan. and it is tough. i try and keep it simple, try and focus on things that are easy to remember and support these things with real evidence. i'll tell you, one man who really opened my eyes is dr. robert lustig. >> i hope i will have debunked the last 30 years of nutrition information in america. >> this simple lecture by professor robert lustig of the university of california-san francisco has been viewed nearly 3 million times. the basic message, sugar is

toxic. at least in the massive amounts most of us eat it. >> can your liver handle it, and the answer is, no it can't. >> the average american eats 130 pounds of sugar in a single year. that includes the white stuff. but in case you're curious, also the high fructose corn syrup. lustig says for most people it makes no difference. of course, the sugar growers and the corn growers say sugar is like anything else. fine. in moderation. and that's true. but it's not the whole story. and now dr. robert lustig joins us. he's written a new book. in his spare time. it's called "fat chance: beating the odds against sugar, processed foods, obesity and disease." with regard to sugar, and you've talked about the fact that sugar, sweets and stuff, can be bad for your heart. it can ultimately get turned into this very bad sort of cholesterol particles. what happens? you think of fatty foods doing that. but a sugary drink? >> right. the problem is that people think

that sugar is a carbohydrate. the glucose part is a carbohydrate and it can go to liver, starch or gli co general and that can be fished out of the liver for a rainy day on the gridiron. that's the ready energy source. but fructose, sweet part of the sugar, the molecule we seek, the reason why everybody likes sugar, that does not get turned into gleick co general. it gets turned into liver fat. and now one-third of america has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, a disease that wasn't even described until 1980. it is the biggest epidemic in the history of the world. >> it's -- and it's stunning to think about. and again, i think more people need to hear that particular message. the history of it is, well, but sugar -- it's not just the amount of sugar, but it's the rate at which it's absorbed in the body. you really talk about these sugary drinks as opposed to a piece of fruit, for example. which also has sugar in it. >> the reason fiber is so important -- the reason to eat your sugar as whole fruit and

not as fruit juice, not as smoothies, is because the fiber helps reduce the rate of absorption from the gut into the bloodstream. when you juice it, it's all going to you and your liver gets overwhelmed and you get sick. >> so what do you do? >> well, i think the government has to get involved. the problem is, government doesn't want to get involved. because there's money involved. >> right now, what do you do? how do you eat? >> very simple. i tell my kids that if they see something advertised on tv, that means they're not to eat it. because that's -- advertising is for something you don't want and don't need. because if you wanted it or needed it, they wouldn't have to advertise it. >> you've told me before, eat real food. of . >> eat real food, exactly. my kids know, if there is something sweet, it's a piece of fruit, they can have a treat once a week on a weekend, that's just fine. okay. but we plan for it. we make it special. and, of course, no soda or juice. >> just really quickly, there's

obviously a lot of books out there about nutrition, about diet. you've read them, you know these authors. how is your book different? >> what i try to do is i try to make peace. every diet book espouses a diet. i don't. because there are a lot of diets that work. there's the pail odiet, the atkins diet, the ornish diet, the guy seemic index diet, the south beach diet. they all work, except for one thing. they don't. and the reason they don't work is because after two months, every diet regresses. christopher gardner at stanford showed this nicely in his a to z study. bottom line, we can't stay on a diet and the reason is because of what's available. no one can stay on a diet. the problem is what's wrong with the diet. and when you answer that question, you see what all of these diets actually share in common, they share two things. low sugar, high fiber. and low sugar, high fiber is

called real food. >> i love that. you've told me this before. i've adopted it in my own lifestyle, feel healthier as a result. eat real food. great to see you. thank you. next up, deepak chopra stops by to talk about how to reduce stress. also a trip to improve your memory, something i'm using in my own life now.

how would you like to have a user's manual for your brain? seriously, who wouldn't want this? a way to train your brain to cooperate. earlier i spoke with deepak chopra, coauthor of this new book called "super brain." and we started with the difference between perception and reality. >> everybody's perceptions of even a simple event or simple object can be wildly different.

>> right. and if you change your perception of time, for example, you slow down your experience of time, your biological clock is influenced by that. so if you're running out of time, your mental dialogue, your internal dialogue says i'm running out of time, your biological clock actually speeds up. you have a higher blood pressure, high levels of adrenaline. when you drop dead of a heart attack, then you've run out of time. so if you have all of the time in the world -- it's a mental attitude. i said i'm going to make my flight this morning, but right now, i'm with you. >> you made one comment in the book, i remember, i paid attention to as a journalist, attaching emotion to something is going to make it behave differently in the brain. >> yes, the more you attach emotions and healthy emotions are love, joy, compassion empathy, he can anonymity. in eastern traditions, called divine emotions because they move you out of your skin-encapsulated ego and

connect you with the world. and these are very healthy emotions. >> so if you're teaching a child, the concepts they learn in grade school not the most exciting. but should emotions either through story-telling or otherwise be part of the way kids are taught? >> medical stories, stories of great heroes. history, mythology, religion. which we grew up with. these were part of our culture. and somehow because we're living in this very highly technological society, stories telling is not getting the importance it should get. >> right. and this idea of attaching emotion even to, you know, math, god forbid, or something like that. >> math, music, emotion. also, it's important to parcel out time. so, you know, the critical brain cannot multitask. your auto no, ma'amic brain can. but that's a myth. so do one thing at a time and do it with focused attention. so there's, you know, work time, sleep time --

>> you're saying i shouldn't be looking at my blackberry when talking to my wife? >> no. >> for a lot of reasons. something i thought was interesting and very specific, i love to make lists. i make lists if i go to the grocery store and things like that. and i'm very dependent on those lists. you say that's not such a good idea. >> yeah. because, you know, again, those who have very good memories, they connect those lists with images in the brain. or with emotions. and that's -- that's what is good for a graphic memory. >> you told the story of a guy who became dependent -- had a pretty good memory but started making lists and then when he forgot the list, wouldn't remember anything. so it's almost this case our brains become dependent on things. >> yes. >> and you also call the stuckness or a mental groove in the brain. what does that mean? >> it means you become a creature of habit. you become a bundle of

conditioned reflexes and nerves that is constantly being triggered by people and circumstance into predictable outcomes, which means you don't have any creativity anymore. >> that's bad. >> that's bad. >> it sounds bad, obviously. but in terms of our brain itself, it's bad. >> it's bad, because there's loss of creativity. you know, the more you are unstuck, the more predictable you are, the more comfortable you are in embracing uncertainty, the more creative. you know, if you want a healthy outlook, you can do a lot worse than the manure about to meet. for most people, cancer is a scary word. but this expert chef beat cancer five times and now continues to pay it forward. >> i'm the executive chef in new jersey. >> eric levine got off to a rocky start on the food network's "chopped" but the fact that he showed up to compete at

all defines resilience in the face of adversity. >> the night before, i had the chemoradiation treatment, i found out i had six to eight months to go. at that moment, it was like, a light bulb went off. it was, wow, look at the opportunities i have. most people would give their soul to have what i have. >> eric survived the chopping block and won $10,000. but more importantly, he has now survived cancer five times. he was first diagnosed when he was just 29 years old. >> after i had cancer for the first time, i wanted something to remind me every day of life. so the five on the ouide represents the five times i've beaten cancer and the i.m. is the indestructible master of one theory that i have. and take responsibility for your happiness and actions and what you do in life. if you pass that on to one person every day. >> good afternoon, ladies. how are you? are you enjoying your dining experience so far?

>> levine, now 43, is using his new-found celebrity to push others to attain their full potential. and he begins right in his own kitchen. >> throughout the kitchen, we have different phrases or different signs, different things. i think it's a point to our being in the kitchen. the mind-set of the kitchen. and the stems, cut it off. we'll use that. >> levine shares his culinary and cancer survival experiences at events held at his restaurant, as well as when he lends his time to the american cancer society. >> for me, it's all about paying it forward and through a good cause and very involved with the american cancer society. >> in the end, he says fight the fight, do what you love every day and above all, have some fun. >> i think the fun factor is what it's about. besides the hokey pokey. the hokey pokey is obviously what it's about. but they look at me and go, okay, i get it, i'm not winning any, you know, sexiest man of the year awards. but i'm the happiest person in the universe.

>> that attitude, despite beating cancer five times. good luck. four out of five americans don't stick with their new year's resolutions. i'm talking to you. so let's change that together, next. 3w4r567 had humans. even when we cross our t's and dot our i's, we still run into problems. namely, other humans. at liberty mutual insurance, we understand. that's why our auto policies come with accident forgiveness if you qualify, where your rates won't go up due to your first accident, and new car replacement, where, if you total your new car, we give you the money for a new one. call... to talk to an insurance expert about everything else that comes standard with our base auto policy. and if you get into an accident and use one of our certified repair shops, your repairs are guaranteed for life. call... to switch, and you could save hundreds.

♪ born to make mistakes liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?